July 2018 Art for all ages in the heart of the Ouachitas Gallery Highlights... Fiber Arts Our Fiber Arts meets at the gallery on Saturdays from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Any form of fiber art is welcome. Come bring your project and have fun. Art Classes for Children and Adults The second Saturday of each month from 11 to 2 there will be classes for children and beginning adults ages 10 and up. The cost is $3 per person. The third Saturday of each month from 1 to 3 will be classes for children ages 5 9. The cost is $2 per child. Please call the gallery at 479-394-3880 to sign up. P. O. Box 871 607 Mena Street, Mena, AR 71953 479-394-3880 email@menaartgallery.org www.menaartgallery.org Gallery Hours: Tue. 11-2; Wed. Sat. 10-3; or by appointment call 479-394-3880 July is Fiber Art Month! Mena Art Gallery s annual Fiber Arts Show is now open with work in a wide variety of beautiful and useful pieces ranging from hand-pieced quilts to rugs to knitted lace shawls to hand-woven scarves to lined mittens or knitted Harry Potter bookmarks. And if you are a do-it-yourselfer, there is also hand-spun yarn in a variety of weights and colors. In addition, some of our fiber artists have scheduled classes this month so that you can learn the basics of several skills: Friday, July 2 Knitting Friday, July 13 Drop Spindle Spinning Thursday, July 19 Stamps Make Quilting Easy Saturday, July 21 Textile Expert Brenda Horton will give a history and details of the ancient Boro technique of quilting Saturday, July 30 People s Choice Award For details, please check our website: www.menaartgallery.org. On Friday, July 20, from 3 pm to 8 pm, the gallery will join the Downtown Partners Christmas in July with A Night at the Gallery. This will continue on Saturday, July 21. You may enter a drawing to win prints or greeting cards with artwork by some of our local artists. For more information about any of this, drop by the gallery at 607 Mena Street during regular gallery hours of 11 am to 2 pm Tuesdays or 10 am to 3 pm Wednesdays through Saturdays. Or call the gallery at 479-394-3800 and talk to Whitney Espinoza, our Executive Director, or check out the website.
Page 2 HeArt of the Ouachitas July 2018 You can sign up for coming months on the calendar on the wall on the Volunteers' Board to get your choice of dates! If you can come in as Gallery Attendant on any day marked available below, please call the gallery at 479-394-3880. We only need volunteers for Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; the Art Day attendees take care of Tuesdays and the Fiber Arts attendees take care of Fridays. Please note that your commitment as gallery attendant is for three hours: usually that is from noon to 3 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday, but if mornings are more convenient for you, call Julie at the gallery, 479-394-3880, and see if she can switch hours with you. July 2018 Sunq Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat 1 Closed 2 Closed 3 Art Day 4 Barbara Tobias 5 Lorine Ayers 6 Available 7 Fiber Arts 8 Closed 9 Closed 10 Art Day Board Meeting 5:30 pm 11 Lorine Ayers 12 Available 13 Ann Glenn 14 Fiber Arts Children & Adult 10 & Up 15 Closed 16 Closed 17 Art Day 18 Available 19 Barbara Tobias 20 Jolyn Vacca 21 Fiber Arts Children s Art Ages 5-9 1 pm 3 pm 22 Closed 23 Closed 24 Art Day 25 Available 26 Sheryl Davis 27 Available 28 Fiber Arts 29 Closed 30 Closed 31 Art Day
Page 3 HeArt of the Ouachitas July 2018 What s Going On? Be sure to check page 3 of your newsletter each month for details and contacts to learn more about any of these groups. You are cordially invited to drop in on any of these activities. Call the gallery at 479-394-3880 for more details, or contact the person listed under the activity you are interested in. Don t see something you would like to be involved in? Call the gallery to find out how it can be started. Don t forget that we always need volunteers to staff the gallery. Please check the calendar on page two. If you can work as gallery attendant on any of the days marked Available, please call and tell Julie. And thank you! Art Day This is open to anyone working in a media that is portable enough to bring to the classroom. Artists come and go between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. each Tuesday. Come and bring your current project or just come to watch and talk. For more information, contact Gilda Meyers at ladyhawke95@gmail.com or call her at 214-536-3658. Fiber Arts Meeting on Saturdays The Fiber Arts is meeting at the gallery every Saturday from noon until 3 p.m. Bring whatever project you are working on and join us! If you have questions about the group call Missy William at 636-359-0911. Minutes of Board Meeting 06/12/2018 Board Members Attending: Lorraine Timmerman, David Maddox, Tiffany Lane, Diane Warren, Jan Wennberg, Barbara Lewis, Sandra Thomas, Dorothy Stevenson, Barbara Tobias Also attending: Whitney Espinoza, Patricia Trulock, Heather Aleshire Lorraine called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Cindy Perkins had been invited to speak to the Board. She would like to use the gallery facilities for a book signing for her book, Still Waters, preferably in August. She will handle all the publicity and the refreshments. David moved that we permit this; motion was seconded, and the motion passed. We reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting. Barbara T moved that we accept them as written; David seconded; motion passed. We discussed the financial statements. Barbara T moved they be accepted as read; Tiffany seconded; motion passed. Lorraine reported that we need some repairs to the front awning support and that we currently have no members on the Building and Maintenance committee. She passed around a copy of the bylaws listing our current committees and their membership, asking that each of us check the committees we were working with to make sure the listing is correct and asking for volunteers to fill the committees lacking in members. Exhibits Committee: Jan Wennberg brought the 2019 Exhibit schedule that has been previously approved by the Board. Because we have so much to cover tonight, Barbara T moved that we table decisions regarding the show financial requests until the next Board meeting; David seconded. The motion passed. Juried Shows: Barbara L reported on the Juried Shows. We had four sales in Small Works. Heartland has $13,175 carryover to fund this year s competition which is scheduled for $8,625 in award expense. The remainder of the carryover will be used to fund other expenses for that show.
Page 4 HeArt of the Ouachitas July 2018 We will have a Figure/Portrait workshop by internationally recognized artist Tina Garrett during the Heartland show on October 19, 20, 21. Barbara L has secured a location for this and reported that we will incur expenses of approximately $417 per artist and plan to charge between $475 and $600 per artist with the excess going to support the gallery. Garrett requires a minimum of eight students in the class, so it should be a profitable endeavor. Members of the Juried Show Committee will provide the necessary labor to make this happen. Advertising will continue to be largely through Facebook, but we are also looking into other advertising possibilities. Patricia Trulock requested that we limit Facebook posting on the gallery Facebook page in order to allow posts about shows scheduled between now and October to dominate. Tiffany pointed out that we need to create rules for things like the gallery Facebook page so everyone will know what they can do. Fund Raising Committee: The committee reported plans for several events: A Night at the Gallery will take place during the Heartland show; we will invite Chamber of Commerce members and all other organizations we can reach in order to bring more people into the gallery. We will also appeal to attendees for membership support. Also planned is a luncheon for the Daughters of the American Republic. Barbara T will cater this; Tiffany will provide a program of information about the gallery history and what we do for the community and request membership support. The Sustaining Membership program is now ready for use. Whitney reported that she has been trained by Union Bank on how to handle it. Barbara T requested that all Board members take a form, fill it out with their preferred monthly donation, attach a canceled check, and give the form to Whitney who will report it to the bank and report back to the Board at the next meeting. Ouachita Arts Celebration: We went over the minutes of the last OAC meeting. Marketing and Promotion: Lorraine presented a revised design for rack cards which included mention of our national shows. Barbara L said she preferred the design of the current rack card and proposed revising it so that the information and pictures are current. Barbara T moved that Barbara L make the revisions she would like to see on the current rack card and we vote on which design the Board would prefer at the next meeting. Tiffany seconded the motion, and it passed. Bylaws: Lorraine reported that the Bylaws do not cover who is authorized to sign for grants to the gallery. Tiffany said she would develop language to add this policy to the bylaws and present to the Board for approval at the next meeting. Whitney presented the Executive Director s Report including: the success of the Photography Show; a radio spot she did on June 5; The Pulse s request that we spend some advertising dollars with them in return for a free monthly radio spot; a suggestion for a 2019 Children s Summer Art Camp; Taking It to the Schools has been cancelled; plans for the upcoming Fiber Arts show; and the proposed Marlene Gremillion workshop. She also requested permission to sign correspondence for such things as thank you letters, permission to have business cards made in her name, permission to change the locks on the doors and get control of who has keys to the gallery. The Board approved these three requests on a motion by David and second by Tiffany. Heather offered to coordinate with Carolynne Sizemore to get set up for the Gremillion workshop. Barbara L pointed out that we have a policy in place of charging organizations who are not a part of the gallery and that the Downtown Partners are meeting here at no charge. David suggested that Whitney notify them of the policy and ask how they propose handling future meetings. Lorraine announced that Whitney now has a receipt book and will provide a record of cash donations. We discussed operating procedures for the gallery store. David moved that the store should be under the direction of the Executive Director with the assistance of the volunteer store coordinator. Tiffany seconded; motion passed. Lorraine adjourned the meeting at 7:30 pm.
Page 5 HeArt of the Ouachitas July 2018 The Gallery Store Did you realize that we have a store in the gallery which carries only the work of local artist members? It has paintings, drawings, prints, Native American style leather items, jewelry, and a variety of other things. If you would like to have your work in the store, please call our Executive Director, Whitney Espinoza, at 479-394-3880. She can tell you what the requirements are and how to proceed. In addition, it s a great place to shop. Come in and see what treasures you can find. Membership We are in the process of going over our membership data and will be sending out reminders in the future so you can easily tell when your membership will expire. You might also want to consider becoming a Sustaining Member. Advantages to you: you can set it up to transfer the amount YOU choose from you account to the gallery each month. Until and unless YOU decide to change or cancel, you don t have to remember your expiration date or do anything more you re always up-to-date. Advantages to the gallery: we will know what income we have coming in and can plan what we can do in the future. And you also have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping us keep art to the foreground in Mena Ouachita Expressions is Coming! August will see one of our longest-running shows, Ouachita Expressions. You can find complete data on how to enter your work including entry forms on our website: www.menaartgallery.ord. Volunteers We could not operate the gallery without you! Thank you for all you do from greeting visitors when they come in the door to bringing goodies to our receptions, and most of all, for allowing us to display your artwork in our show. Not yet a volunteer? Call the gallery at 479-394-3880 and find out how you can join the ranks of the most important people in our gallery.
Page 6 HeArt of the Ouachitas June 2018 Mena Art Gallery is owned and operated by SouthWest Artists, Inc., a non-profit corporation, and support is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts, and several local businesses and individuals. Donations are tax deductible and help ensure the continuing work of bringing art to the community of Mena and the surrounding area. Sponsorships and donations can be made on our website at www.menaartgallery.org. If you prefer to have your name removed from our mailing list or would like to be removed from our email list please send an email to: email@menaartgallery.org or call 479-394-3880. Membership in Mena Art Gallery is available at several levels: Student: $10:00 Individual: $20.00 Family: $35.00 Sustaining: $5 (or more) Monthly Membership forms are available at the Gallery or on the website www.menaartgallery.org We encourage you to become a member in this progressive artistic community and hope you will remember Mena Art Gallery in your Estate Planning by Leaving a Legacy for the Arts within the community for future generations. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lorraine Timmerman, Chair (2019) David Maddox (2019) Diane Warren (2020) Barbara Tobias (2020) Jan Wennberg (2018) Sandra Thomas (2018) Tiffany Lane (2018) Barbara Lewis (2018) Dorothy Stevenson (2020) The Executive Director of the gallery is Whitney Espinoza. She is available at 479-394-3880 during regular business hours to answer your questions and assist with your artistic endeavors.